Till I Get It Right

by LadyMourne

Time is ticking. Ryker Thorne needs to get stronger. He needs to fix his mistake and it looks like Beacon is his only chance at doing so. With the ability to rewind time it's a race to get strong enough to go back to the worst moment in his life and stop it from happening. Though the longer he takes the less likely it is he will ever be able to go back to when his mom died.

13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen: Life After

Authors note: Welcome to the start of Volume Two, I hope you enjoy it. Small announcement. I just published a new story, so If you like My Hero Academia then give it a read, you can find it here on my profile. It's a little different, but it was something I really wanted to work on as a little side project.

(Ruby pov)

"Are you sure you need to go, Ruby?" Blake asked softly, as I packed my clothes. What was left of Team RSBR sitting in our dorm, a room that just felt so empty now that Ryker was in the hospital. "Weiss and I are staying, and it would be nice to have you around. We are gonna miss you."

"I can't, I can't stay, not now. Professor Ozpin said we could go if we want and I want to go. Being here hurts." I say, my voice so empty and dull. I couldn't muster the energy to sound happy right now.

"So you are just running away? Ryker is in a coma and you are just going to leave us here to pick up the pieces?" Weiss scoffed her voice angry and tight. She sounded close to tears. I knew she was lashing out at me because she was just as affected by Ryker's injury as I was, but even still I couldn't find it within myself to even respond. What was the point?

"Weiss-"

"No! If she wants to run away like the little girl she is then that's just fine by me. We don't need her anyway." Weiss snapped as her heels clicked against the hardwood floor. The door to our dorm slammed as she left to who knows where.

"She's just upset about Ryker, don't take it personally." Blake sighed.

"I'm not, I get it," I respond as I finish putting all of my things I wanted to take with me in my suitcase. I turn around, finally looking at Blake. She looked pained, her eyes were red and she looked so defeated. "I guess I will see you next semester."

Blake sniffed, offering me a stiff nod. "Yeah, I guess it does."

I nod, turning away as I go to leave but something stops me. Nothing physically, nothing is actually keeping me from walking out the door, but I stop all the same. I turn around and run to Blake, throwing my arms around her as I hug her with everything I have. It takes only a moment before she hugs me too. "I'm going to miss you too," I mumble into her chest.

I freeze as I feel Blake press her lips to the top of my head. Nobody had ever kissed me besides Mom, Dad, and Yang. I pull away from her slightly, not breaking the hug as I look up at her, I feel my face grow warm as I look at her with confusion. Had she meant to- Shes kissing me!

Her lips were chapped and split, wounds from her fight at the dockyard, and even still it was the softest thing I had ever felt. My lips buzzed, feeling like I had pure energy flowing through where Blake's lips had met my own. My heart skipped a beat as Blake pulled away her face red as she realized what she had done. "R-Ruby, I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that."

Blake tries to pull away but I don't let her. I hug her tighter. "It's ok, I liked it, I think. It's just a lot. I don't know how to feel right now, but I did like it." I mumble. As I hugged Blake, my face pressed against her chest again something caught my eye. On Ryker's nightstand was the old scroll that he always carried around. I let go of Blake and walked over and picked it up. "Do you know why Ryker has this? He always carried it with him wherever he went."

"It's something his mom left him, apparently before she died she recorded hundreds of videos on random things she could give him advice on. He listens to it when he wants to feel close to her." Blake answered as she walked up from behind me, her hand pressing gently on my back as we looked at Ryker's scroll.

"I'm going to take it with me, to help me feel like he's still here and that things are going to be ok, is that ok?" I ask.

"I think Ryker would be ok with that, you can be sure to give it back to him when he wakes up," Blake said, her voice soft and affectionate.

I smiled looking down at the old scroll, the memory from all those weeks ago playing in my mind. I had never gotten around to watching any videos, that felt like a breach of Ryker's privacy. Those videos from his mom were meant for him, not me. Still, I always kept the scroll with me.

I blushed slightly as I went over the kiss with Blake in my head. I didn't really understand it, part of me was angry that she had chosen such a vulnerable moment to kiss me, but another part understood completely why she did it. We were both hurting in ways that we never thought we could. She needed comfort, and so did I. So in that moment, we found comfort in each other. I didn't know if it meant she wanted anything more. It could have just been a mistake, or it could have been so much more.

I know I liked girls from a young age, I also liked boys, but just a whole lot less. I had found very few boys attractive, there was a boy back in Signal that I had a crush on, and Ryker. I definitely had a crush on Ryker, but he felt different. I didn't like Ryker the same way I had liked other boys, Ryker was just so… Ryker.

To be fair, I was attracted to my entire team. They were all attractive in their own different ways. Blake was so strong and self-assured, she might have been my quietest friend but when she spoke everyone listened. To be honest it made no sense why I was the leader when Blake was also on the team, she could have easily been the team leader. Weiss was attractive in a different way than Blake. Weiss was smart and passionate, and she always dominated the room. You knew when you were in a room with Weiss Schnee, she just had this aura about her.

I knew I would likely never be able to express my feelings for my teammates, but if Blake felt the same way then I guess one out of three ain't half bad. Though the thought of anything more with Blake scared me. She didn't know, and I was beyond scared to tell her. Would she want to be in a relationship with me if I told her I was Asexual?

I knew from what research I had done that I was considered demiromantic/asexual. I wasn't sex-repulsed like many other asexual people, but that didn't mean I wanted sex. I didn't know if I could be ready for something like that, and even when I was for sure ready, I didn't know what sex would look like for me.

I was one hundred percent positive that I didn't want anything going inside me down there, the thought alone sent shivers up my spine in the worst kind of way. However, maybe I could do other things, things that didn't involve any downstairs stuff happening to me. It was a thought, but it also felt like a pipe dream. Blake kissed me and here I was thinking about ways I could possibly have sex with her. Good going Ruby your the actual pervert of Team RSBR.

"You ready, Rubes?" Yang asked snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked over at her and nodded.

"Just finished packing," I said gesturing to my suitcase.

"I bet Weiss and Blake will be happy to see you." Yang smiled pulling me into a half hug as she grabbed my suitcase from me.

"I think Weiss is still angry that I came home instead of staying at Beacon," I respond as we leave the house, the walk to the port not very long. Dad had said he would meet us there to see us off.

"Well if she gives you any trouble let me know and I'll break her legs for you." Yang laughed and my mortified expression.

"You spend too much time with Nora. She's rubbing off on you." I whine.

"No, she rubs off on Ren, not me." Yang laughed as I felt my face flush.

"Gross, don't talk about your friends like that!"

"Oh don't be such a prude, Nora and Ren have been together for like forever."

"That doesn't mean you just talk about them doing 'things'." Yang laughed, happy to keep torturing me with gossip about her teammate's sex lives. The walk to the port seemed to fly by before I knew it I saw our dad waving at us, he was standing at the dock we would be departing from.

"There you two are, was wondering if you had slept in or something." He laughed as he pulled us both into a hug.

"Nah, Ruby was just taking a little extra time packing," Yang answered.

Dad looked at me with a concerned expression, he had been doing that a lot these past few weeks. "Ruby, you don't have to go back if you can't handle it right now. We can pull you out for a semester. I'm sure that Ozpin would be ok if you needed more time."

"I'm ok," I answer simply, the look that Dad and Yang gave me showed that they really didn't believe me. "Ok, I'm not ok, but I'm trying to be. Besides I need to be there when Ryker wakes up." I reason.

Neither of them looked that convinced but they didn't push me on it. Dad rubbed the back of his head looking like he didn't quite know what to say. "I just want you to be ok. I know your teammate's accident really hurt you, and I just don't want you giving your hopes up thinking that he wi-"

"He is going to wake up." I interrupt. "He has to, I have his scroll and he needs to wake up so he can get it back. Besides we can't be a team with only three members, so he also has to wake up so that we don't have a team with an odd number of members."

I ignored the look that Dad gave me at my insistence that Ryker would wake up and hugged him. "I love you, don't let the house get dirty just because me and Yang aren't here," I mumble into his chest.

"Ha! No promises, be sure to call me every now and then, your old man gets lonely when his Little Dragon and Little Rose aren't around." I pull away from the hug and give Dad the best smile I could muster, It wasn't much, but I tried and I think he knew that.

"Yang it's your responsibility to make sure that your sister eats and takes showers till she is better. I'm counting on you to make sure Ruby is ok."

"You can count on me."

I ignored the rest of the conversation. I didn't really want to hear about how much Dad wanted to make sure that Yang knew to babysit me. I could take care of myself, it just so happened that food and shower felt like such a chore now. I hadn't bothered to tell them about the hallucinations. How often I was haunted by things that weren't there. I began seeing blood, splatters, and pools of blood that were ripped straight from that night at the dockyard. Even worse, I kept seeing and hearing Ryker. The hallucinations were so vivid, it was hard to tell myself that they were only in my head.

I zone out, letting the boat trip fly by as I get lost in my head. I had found that I do that a lot more now after Ryker got hurt. I found comfort in the numbness that came with the dissociation. It felt like a shield that would protect me when I couldn't handle things happening around me. I could just get lost in my head, and eventually, the things that were bothering me in real life would go away.

Soon enough I found myself back in control of my body, the port of Vale coming closer and closer. Yang tapped my shoulder and gave me a small smile. "We are here, and I think I see your teammates waiting for you." She chuckled pointing at the white and black figures standing on the dock.

As the ship finally docks we walk onto the dock, Yang still choosing to carry both my suitcase and hers. I stop a few feet away from Weiss and Blake. They both looked like they had been suffering just as much as I had. Blake had deep circles under her eyes, and Weiss' hair was pulled into a messy ponytail instead of the perfect ponytail she always wore.

"Hi." I finally spoke, unsure if they were even happy to see me. "I know you were upset that I left, and I understand if you hate me but I hope that I can make it up to both of you."

Weiss and Blake looked at me with expressions I couldn't quite place, they turned their heads to look at each other, almost like they were having a telepathic conversation. Finally, they both looked at me and held out their arms. "Shut up you Dolt and hug us!" Weiss snapped tears dotting her eyes.

I ran into their arms, two pairs of arms pulling me into a three-way hug. "We missed you so much!" Blake spoke, her voice heavy with emotion.

"I'm sorry for leaving, it hurt so bad," I said a sob pouring out of me.

"We know, we know how much Ryker means to you." Weiss sniffed as we refused to let go of each other.

We hugged for what felt like forever, but eventually, we pulled away from one another, Blake however made it a point to never let go of my hand. When I looked at her with questions present in my eyes she simply smiled, it was small, a flicker of emotion that was breaking through the surface of an ocean of pain and negativity, but I saw it.

The walk back to Beacon took a bit, we had to wait for an airbus to take us up the cliff that Beacon stood atop. By the time we made it the sun was already on the horizon, darkness only a few hours away. I was thankful that Professor Ozpin had chosen to have us meet him the day after I arrived instead of the day of. I was exhausted.

Yang gave me a hug and a kiss as she went to her team's dorm room, leaving Blake, Weiss, and me outside our own dorm room. I took a shaky breath, my hand hovering on the door handle before I felt my hand get squeezed. Blake gave me a reassuring look, with a nod I steeled my nerves and grabbed the handle, opening the door to the dorm room I hadn't been in for a month and a half.

Stepping inside nothing really looked like it had changed, my bed was still suspended by ropes, Blakes by books. Rykers stuff remained untouched, his weapon Fool's Folly laying on his bed in its sword form, the blood having been cleaned off, but beyond that, nothing else had been done to our teammate's weapon. We just wanted it in working condition for when he came back.

"I will unpack your stuff if you wanna take a shower and get dressed for bed?" Blake spoke finally letting go of my hand as she took my suitcase from me.

"Bed? It's like six?"

Blake smiled and shrugged. "Me and Weiss thought we could get comfy and have a movie night as a way to celebrate your return."

I thought for a moment, both Blake and Weiss looking at me hopefully. "That sounds nice. I do need a shower too, it's- it's been a few days." I say embarrassed.

"We know, we can smell." Weiss teased as she handed me two towels, one for my body, and one for my hair. "But, we get it. Taking care of ourselves has become a group effort. Blake has a hard time sleeping, and I… Well, let's just say I haven't been coping well either. So, go take your shower, and when you get back all your stuff will be unpacked and I will have enough popcorn and drinks for us to watch as many movies as we want."

I nod, and head to the bathroom. I get in and shower, taking time to just let myself stand under the water. Watching the water swirl down the drain, I flinch as the water turns red, first, it was light, just little bits of pink tendrilling and swirling around the drain, till it became heavier and heavier. The water became thick as it dyed the tub red. I whimper, shutting my eyes, trying to ignore what I knew was coming.

"Ruby, why did you let me get hurt?" The voice asked next to my ear, the voice of my teammate, Ryker's voice.

"I didn't mean to, I got there as fast as I could."

I flinch feeling featherlight touches brush my neck. "That's not true, you were busy playing with your new friend Penny, you were replacing me before I had even been hurt."

"No."

"You wanted me to get hurt, you wanted me to go away, to not have to take care of me. I was too much and you just wanted a normal teammate."

"That's not true." I cry, as I feel myself press myself against the wall of the shower.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that. Tell me that you tried your hardest, that you did everything you could to save me. Tell me!" The fake Ryker snarled.

I opened my eyes, my breathing heavy as I looked around the bathroom, nothing was out of place, and the water was no longer red like blood. The hallucination is over. I needed to get out, I needed out right now. I finished scrubbing as quickly as possible, wanting out of the bathroom as quickly as possible. I wrapped my towel, forgetting the one meant for my hair around me, and burst out of the bathroom, my breathing still fast and panicked.

"Ruby?" Weiss squeaked blushing at my state of undress. "What are you doing? We set clothes on the counter in there for you!"

I ignored her as I jumped onto Blake who was lying in Wiess' bed, the raven-haired girl grunting as I wrapped my arms around her and began to cry, my entire body shaking as I tried to shake the feelings of the hallucination.

"Ruby, what's wrong? What happened?"

I shake my head, not wanting to say what happened. I was too scared that if I said it, the hallucination would start up again.

"Ruby you have to talk to us. Tell us what's wrong." Blake spoke, her arms slowly wrapping around me, one hand going to the back of my head and the other to my back.

"I see him." I cry out. "I see him everywhere I go and he blames me. It's my fault, if I was a better leader then he wouldn't have been hurt. I could have done more."

"Ruby." Weiss sighed, the bed dipping as I felt her hand join Blake's on my back, both of them rubbing circles into my back to try and calm me down.

"Ruby, it's not your fault. Its mine. If I hadn't run, if I just sat down and explained my past as a White Fang member then none of this would have happened. You have done nothing wrong, it's all on me."

"No, it's not, I'm the leader, I'm supposed to make sure everyone stays safe."

"Will both of you stop with the self-blame!" Weiss hissed. "We are Huntresses in training, this is the single most dangerous job in the world. Huntsman and Huntresses get hurt, that's what happens. Ryker got hurt doing what he thought was right. He got hurt trying to help Blake and her friend. Do you know whose fault it is that Ryker got hurt? It's the White Fang's fault, it is Roman Torchwick's fault. Ryker did what was right, and some very bad people hurt him for it. Sitting around blaming yourselves does nothing to help the situation."

"What would you suggest then Heiress?" Blake bit back.

"To move on, keep training, keep being students, and get better. We have been here for an entire semester and we hardly act like a team. We instead act as four individuals. We have to do better in the future, or what happened to Ryker will happen to us, or even worse it will happen to the civilians that we are supposed to be protecting."

I shudder, finally managing to calm my breathing down, and not keep spiraling with emotion. I roll off of Blake, my hands clutching the towel around me so it doesn't slip off. "You're right. We haven't been much of a team. If all four of us were there and we worked together then Ryker wouldn't have been hurt. We could have stopped Torchwick."

"So what, we just let the police and local Hunstman handle the White Fang and Torchwick, and we just sit up here in our castle being students?" Blake spoke bitterly.

Weiss shook her head, placing her hand on her chin as she paced back and forth, thinking about exactly what she wanted to say next. "No, I'm saying that if we want to bring down Torchwick and stop whatever it is that he and the White Fang are doing, we need to do it together. No more running off with some random dude you just met, no more throwing ourselves into fights without backup. We need to be a team, and we honestly need more help than just us three."

"We should bring Yang and her team in on this. They were Ryker's friends too, and if we want to get payback for what happened to Ryker then we need all the help we can get." I spoke. It made the most sense, Yang and Pyrrha alone would easily be able to help us take out anything that got in our way, add in Nora and Ren and we would be practically unstoppable.

"I agree." Weiss sighed before a blush took over her entire face. "Would you please go put some clothes on! If that towel slides up any higher then I'm going to end up seeing everything there is to see Ruby!"

I hesitated for a moment, I really didn't want to go back into that bathroom right now. It still felt tainted by the hallucination. "Can you go and grab my clothes and I change in here? I-I don't think I can be alone right now."

"You want to change in front of us?" Blake asked with an amused look.

"You can turn around!"

Blake snorted at my embarrassment. "But you wouldn't mind if we didn't turn around."

"I did not say that!"

"But you did imply it."

Weiss rolled her eyes, turning around and marching into the bathroom, within five seconds she emerged with my clothes in hand. She then aggressively pointed at a corning in the room. "Go change in the corner, I will make sure that neither of us takes a peak." She grunted.

I blushed nodding, before wriggling out of Weiss' bed, the towel clinging on for dear life as I took the bundle of clothes from Weiss and walked to the corner she had pointed at. "Are you looking?"

"No, get changed." Weiss barked.

"Ok," I mumble as I finally let the towel drop and begin to change into my night-time clothes. Within a minute I was fully dressed in comfy pajamas. "Ok, I'm dressed, you can look now," I say moving away from the corner.

Both looked at me with soft smiles. "So, movie night?" Blake asked holding up her scroll.

I grin, jumping back into Weiss' bed with them, both of my teammates wrapping me up in a hug as we got comfy. I was in the middle, with Blake and Weiss on either side of me. Blake pulled up a streaming app on her scroll and started to skim through the movies and shows on it.

"What are we thinking? Action?"

"No, nothing gory, and nothing where a character dies."

"So a kid's movie?"

I pouted slightly at the insult. "Plenty of people die in kid's movies. The main characters almost always have dead parents Weiss." I snip getting an eye roll out of her.

"That's actually because, in terms of storytelling, the death of one's parents is often the loss of innocence for the main character that sparks them becoming the hero that the story needs them to be. It's an effective plot device." Blake spoke as she thumbed through more and more movies.

"You're smart." I giggle, Blake, gaining a slight blush from my compliment.

"I just read a lot, storytelling is incredibly formulaic, it ultimately just comes down to the themes that the writers want to express. Kid's movies often want to showcase a very basic message in a way that anyone can understand. When it's a story about evil versus good it becomes easy to see why things happen the way they do. It's one of seven basic stories you can tell."

"Would you just pick a movie!" Weiss groaned.

"You still haven't said what kind."

"Comedy." Weiss snipped.

I giggle as Blake rolls her eyes at Weiss' attitude, her thumb scrolling back up to the comedy tab. She scrolls through the movies for a bit before one catches my eye.

"That one," I say excitedly.

"Really?" Blake asks before seeing my puppy dog eyes, she sighs before tapping on the movie. "I guess we are watching this."

We cuddle up, the movie playing on her scroll as we all relax and just enjoy each other's presence. It had been six weeks since we had last seen each other. Six weeks since our teammate and friend had gotten put into a coma, but now we were back, and we had to go back to our lives as students without our fourth member. For now, it was just Team RSB, and unless Ryker woke up it would stay that way. We would never replace him, he was irreplaceable.

We watched three movies, and by the end of the third, it was nearly midnight. I yawned sleepily, fighting to not fall asleep in Weiss' bed. "I think I need to go to sleep. I'm going to end up passing out in your bed." I murmur softly to Weiss.

"About that." Weiss sighed, looking at Blake who gave her a nod. "Since you have been gone, me and Blake started to sleep in the same bed."

What? Were Blake and Weiss in a relationship? Did Blake kiss me and just move on because I didn't ask her to date right then and there? Had I missed my chance? I missed my chance! C'mon Ruby say something! Two of your three crushes are looking at you and are expecting a response, you need to say something!

"Oh."

You useless demiromantic!

"Are you two dating now?" I ask.

"No!" Weiss screeched her entire face red.

"Ruby," Blake spoke grabbing my attention. "Like Weiss said before you shower. I have trouble sleeping, we found that I sleep better if I sleep in bed with someone. Weiss was kind enough to offer to share a bed with me."

"Wait, so like how we took turns with Ryker's nightmares?"

"Pretty much, but now it's just every night." Blake shrugged.

"Oh, then I guess I will leave you both to it," I say awkwardly. "I will just sleep in my bed, won't be a bother, promise." I slowly slide out of their grasp and start climbing into my bed.

Blake sighed. "Ruby, do you want to sleep in bed with us?"

I scrambled back into Weiss' bed, getting tangled in the sheets as I flopped back into my spot in the bed. "Yes please," I say excitedly.

Weiss snorted as we got comfortable again, the bed was a little cramped, but we could figure that out tomorrow, for now, we could take a night to just relax and bond as a team.